Current Affairs Quiz - April 2022

Notes:
The Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) held its maiden Maritime Exercise 2022 (IMEX-22) at Goa and in Arabian Sea.
22 Observers from 15 IONS member navies, including Australia, Bangladesh, France, India, Sri Lanka, UAE and UK among others also participated in the exercise. IMEX – 22 was conducted in two phases with Harbour Phase at Mormugao Port, Goa from followed by a Sea Phase in the Arabian Sea.

Notes:
The Centre through Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) is facilitating trial shipments into new global markets for Indian niche G-I tagged agricultural products.
Bihar’s GI tagged Shahi Litchi was exported from Muzaffarpur district of Bihar to London last year. As on date, there are 417 registered GI products and of them, around 150 GI tagged products are agricultural and food products.

Notes:
International Transgender Day of Visibility is observed on March 31. The USAID launched an initiative called ‘Unbox Me campaign’, which advocates for the rights of transgender children.
It aims to raise awareness among parents, teachers and the society about gender identity during childhood. The campaign originated in India, where more than 90 per cent of transgender people leave their homes, or sent out, by the age of 15.

Notes:
The Ministry of Environment, forest and climate change issued an order, exempting SDN1 and SDN2 genome edited plants from Rules 7-11 of the Environment Protect Act (EPA) for manufacture, use or import or export and storage of hazardous microorganisms or genetically engineered organisms or cells rules-1989.
The exemptions from the rules applicable on genetically modified or GM crops is expected to give a big boost to further research and development of genome-edited crops.

Notes:
Indian space tech start-up Pixxel successfully launched its first fully-fledged commercial satellite apparently called ‘Shakuntala’ or Pixxel TD-2.
The satellite was launched with Elon Musk-run SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-4 mission from Cape Canaveral in the United States. The satellite hosts one of the highest resolution hyper-spectral commercial cameras.

Notes:
State-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T), and ReNew Power have announced a joint venture (JV) company to develop the green hydrogen sector in India.
India plans to produce 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030. In February, the Centre launched the country’s first green hydrogen policy as part of its energy transition plan.

Notes:
Punjab National Bank has recently made the Positive Pay System (PPS) compulsory for cheque payments worth Rs 10 lakh and above.
Under the Positive Pay System (PPS) developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a customer issuing the high-value cheque has to reconfirm some essential details before clearing. It aims to protect the customers from security threats

Notes:
‘Namami Gange Programme’ is an Integrated Conservation Mission launched by the Union Government of India in June 2014 with budget outlay of Rs.20,000 crore.
Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat recently launched the ‘Digital Dashboard for District Ganga Committees (DGCs) Performance Monitoring System’ (GDPMS).

Notes:
US space agency NASA has started the testing of its giant flagship Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
It is also known as the wet dress rehearsal, as liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen will be loaded into the rocket. The 322-foot rocket is expected to be the most powerful in the space history when it becomes operational.

Notes:
A team of astronomers led by researchers at the Center for Astrophysics- Harvard & Smithsonian, USA has detected the most distant astronomical object ever.
The object named ‘HD1’ is a galaxy candidate 13.5 billion light-years away. The astronomical object is extremely bright in ultraviolet light due to some energetic processes occurring in it. HD1 forms more than 100 stars every single year, which 10 times higher than that of starburst galaxies